Written by: Manuj Aggarwal, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Did you know? Burden of diseases has historically been a topic that many people dread and worry greatly about.
Now, there’s no doubt that there have been some notable advancements in the medical field.
From vaccines, anesthesia, and diagnostic imaging, to penicillin, which are among the greatest medical improvements in history, and have made significant changes in medicine.
You see, with the progress medical science has made over the years in understanding the human body, one would expect increased life expectancy and lower disease/death rates.
We have made good progress in this area.
But sadly, we are nowhere close to curing all the known and unknown diseases which are present today.
But what if I told you that the medical community is about to get a ‘magic wand’ ‒ one that can be used to cure the numerous diseases plaguing humanity?
Would you believe me?
Now relax, we do not have to be magicians to wield this wand. All we need is the grit required to use the power of the wand to its fullest potential.
‘What is this magic wand, this writer so keenly speaks about?’, you might wonder.
In two words, ‘ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE!’
With the use of AI, medical experts have been able to take healthcare delivery to another level ‒ one that is sophisticated, precise, and efficient.
‘How?’ You ask again.
Through the delivery of personalized medicine.
Before we proceed, I’d like to tell you a story.
This is the story of a 4-year-old girl, suffering from a condition known as acute immunological insufficiency.
The immunological insufficiency was as a result of a defective gene that failed to create a necessary enzyme.
Medical experts worked tirelessly to develop a cure to save the little girl’s life. Here’s how they did it:
They removed part of the girl's white blood cells during the therapeutic process. Then, they exposed them to a genetically modified virus that still included healthy copies of the gene that was defective in the girl but had lost its virulence.
White blood cells that had been infected by the virus were then given back to the girl via transfusion.
Afterwards, the cells started generating the correct enzyme once they were restored inside the girl's bloodstream.
And, for the first time ever, gene therapy was successfully implemented.
Precision medicine is a new method for treating and preventing diseases that considers a person's unique genetic makeup as well as their environment, lifestyle, and other factors.
With the help of this method, medical professionals and researchers will be able to anticipate with more accuracy which disease-specific treatments and preventative measures will be effective in different populations.
This is opposed to a one-size-fits-all strategy, which develops illness treatment and preventative measures for the typical person while paying less attention to individual differences.
While "precision medicine" as a discipline is a recent invention, the idea has long been present in healthcare. As an illustration, to lower the chance of complications, blood transfusion patients are not given blood from a donor chosen at random but rather from a donor whose blood type is matched to their own.
Regrettably, precision medicine plays a relatively small part in daily healthcare, despite the fact that there are instances in a number of medical specialties.
Researchers anticipate that in the upcoming years, this strategy will be used in a variety of fields of healthcare and health.
Some of the key facts to keep in mind to help understand personalized medicine are listed below:
The human genome shows us that specific diseases are caused by specific genes in our DNA.
Conventional medical practices cannot go that deep into individuals’ anatomy or DNA, thus making the need for personalized medicine essential.
Medical experts have devised personalized medicine which solves the problem of medication side effects, by treating individuals based on their genetic makeup.
The use of biomarkers to categorize individuals in clinical trials to enhance the effectiveness and/or patient safety, boosting overall the likelihood of clinical success and medication approval, is at the heart of the precision medicine approach to drug development.
Targeted medication therapy—drugs that attack a particular target on cancer cells such as employing tumor marker tests to identify cancer or HER2-positive breast cancer cells—and immunotherapy—drugs that support the body's immune system in fighting cancer—are the two types of treatment that precision medicine practitioners most frequently employ.
Gene therapy attempts to treat illness or strengthen your body's resistance to illness by replacing a damaged gene or adding a new gene. Through 2020, roughly 85% of ALL patients who received gene therapy went into remission.
Numerous disorders, including cancer, cystic fibrosis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hemophilia, and AIDS, may be treated with gene therapy. An example of gene therapy is the germline gene therapy.
The goal of germline gene therapy is to introduce improved cells into the germ line (e.g., cells of the ovary or testis).
Precision medicine techniques isolate patient phenotypes with less frequent responses to therapy or particular medical requirements. Here are some of the benefits of AI in personalized healthcare:
There are many applications for AI and machine learning (ML) models.
Through the use of complex computing and inference, AI helps to develop insights, allows the system to reason and learn, and enhances clinical decision-making.
The exploration of novel genotypes and phenotypic data is done in precision medicine using artificial intelligence (AI) approaches.
AI has increasingly shown a capability to custom design drugs or medicines based on an individual's specific DNA and genealogy.
These customized drugs will ensure that these medicines have minimal or no side effects.
AI guarantees a fast and efficient cure because medicine administration is specifically designed for the human body.
The identification of genomic regions with genetic sequences or epigenetic characteristics that allow for greater editing efficiency with little off-target activity is a benefit of CRISPR target site prediction algorithms for viral therapies.
Now, that is the power of AI!
AI in healthcare has helped strengthen medical care and the quality of life of diverse individuals.
The advancing technology produces greater unambiguous diagnoses and treatment procedures and ultimately leads to improved patient outcomes.
More than ever before, AI is revolutionizing healthcare and changing how conventional medicine is done.
The question isn't if AI can affect communities positively or adds tremendous value to the lives of millions.
The answers to the question above aren't debatable.
Artificial Intelligence has proven and will continually substantiate as a vital component of future diagnostic and treatment pathways.
The question is,
How ready are we in medical practice, to embrace the revolution AI makes available?
Are we going to keep sitting on the fence? Or, take advantage of this 'magic wand', starting today?
The choice is ours to make!
Manuj Aggarwal, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Manuj Aggarwal is one of the global leaders in artificial intelligence with 4 patents in AI. A troubled home and relationship troubles led Manuj to a depressed state. Manuj decided to turn his life around through meditation, spirituality, and understanding how our mind creates our reality. He has since dedicated his life to helping others unleash their true potential. He is the CEO of TetraNoodle Technologies, an elite technology consulting company. TetraNoodle incorporates mindfulness and behavioral science in every technology project. TetraNoodle's clients include hundreds of startups and Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, IBM, ING Bank, Pearson Education, and more.
